The Industrial Organizational Psychology Program at the University of Calgary

I/O psychology is a diverse area that covers many different topics. Below is a short summary of three general areas, and other specific topics that our faculty specialize in.

General Areas

Selection & Recruitment

How do you attract quality candidates to your company, and select the ideal candidate for the position? We examine different factors that may impact the selection and recruitment process.

Organizational Behaviors

How do we harness teams to increase performance? How does personality influence the way we interact with others at work? Why do people engage in workplace mistreatment? We examine different factors that may impact one's behaviors, performance, and motivation at work.

Health & Wellbeing

How do we reduce burnout on the job? How can protect trust in the workplace? We investigate factors that impact health and wellbeing, and how we can ensure that employees are able to be productive while feeling physically and cognitively healthy.

Examples of Specific Topics

Impression management

Who engages in impression management (IM), and why? We examine how impression management may impact interview and work performance, and what factors may facilitate or hinder the use of IM.

Gamification in Recruiting

Are people more engaged and more likely to be attracted to the organization when they experience a gamified recruiting process? We examine how typical elements of game playing can be used in recruitment.

Workplace mistreatment

How does context impact workplace mistreatment? We examine how victims, perpetrators, and witnesses react to acts of workplace mistreatment and how workplace context may facilitate or hamper the enactment of workplace mistreatment.

Team conflict

Is all team conflict negative? Can we harness the positives and reduce the negatives of team conflict to improve team performance? We examine the role of conflict and other antecedent factors that impact team performance.

burnout

Do job demands increase the experienced burnout? Do challenges in the workplace actually hinder performance and lead to burnout, or lead to greater effort and performance? We examine how different factors may impact the experience of burnout in the workplace.

Human factors

Can the safety and efficiency of a medical room be increased through different design elements? We examine how human interaction with the physical environment can impact behaviors, well-being, and effectiveness.